It seems that when I'm yarning fwd I'm increasing by 1, because if I knit (yarn is to back) bring the yarn to the front (yarn forward) then knit again it is having the same effect as yarning over, ie adding a stitch. When I do this now I am only left with 1 stitch to knit at the end of the row, instead of 3! Yet, when I count the stitches it adds up to 28.
Then on the next row when I yrn then purl to end that makes 29, which is correct.
The next row asks me to repeat the first row.Again I had 1 stitch to knit at the end, instead of 3, again giving 28.
The I must yrn and knit to end (29) and repeat theses 4 rows until it reaches a certain length.
The knitting is starting to take on the correct shape according to the picture, so maybe the pattern is wrong, not me?? Maybe it should read k1 instead of k3 at the end of the first row?

"All of this begs the requisition if yrn=YO and yfwd=yo then why use 2 different <expletive> instructions to say the same thing?"

My best guesses:

Patterns are written according the custom of the country they are written in

Patterns are written by people from different generations and terminology changes

Old patterns get updated and terminology from yesteryear gets mixed with terminology for the time the pattern was updated, which may or may not have happened this decade or this century

Patterns are written by people and people do things their own way

In addition to differences by country and maybe continent, there are probably regional differences as well....much as in Stephen King books he talks about a breakdown lane which I think is called a shoulder here.

Go figure. Patterns written by real people in a real world are imperfect and sometimes rather unclear.

Yes, it makes me grumpy!

__________________~ GG
I should never overestimate my basic arithmetic skills.

Quote:

Cheating is an option. . . . Cheaters never win and winners never cheat, but smart knitters who want to retain an iota of sanity do, cheerfully. ~~Kory Stamper

Well you're doing better than I am. I was getting derailed by the double decrease and counting it as -2 not +1. Which... is SORTA right, but sends the stitch that IS still left on the needle into an alternate dimension.

All of this begs the requisition if yrn=YO and yfwd=yo then why use 2 different <expletive> instructions to say the same thing??

See, I never even thought about a double decrease and had to go find it. I just about gave up. I counted how many stitches each part of the instructions accounted for on the right needle. My mind works differently, obviously, and sometimes explanations go right over the top of my head. For me to explain things so someone else understands can be nigh impossible. It is so frustrating!

__________________~ GG
I should never overestimate my basic arithmetic skills.

Quote:

Cheating is an option. . . . Cheaters never win and winners never cheat, but smart knitters who want to retain an iota of sanity do, cheerfully. ~~Kory Stamper

"All of this begs the requisition if yrn=YO and yfwd=yo then why use 2 different <expletive> instructions to say the same thing?"

My best guesses:

Patterns are written according the custom of the country they are written in

Patterns are written by people from different generations and terminology changes

Old patterns get updated and terminology from yesteryear gets mixed with terminology for the time the pattern was updated, which may or may not have happened this decade or this century

Patterns are written by people and people do things their own way

In addition to differences by country and maybe continent, there are probably regional differences as well....much as in Stephen King books he talks about a breakdown lane which I think is called a shoulder here.

Go figure. Patterns written by real people in a real world are imperfect and sometimes rather unclear.

Yes, it makes me grumpy!

I get all of the above. People say things differently in different places/times. And yeah, considering it's a nativity, the pattern could be as much as 2000 years old.

But isn't that what EDITORS ARE FOR??? You'd think that in the process of getting this to publication SOMEBODY would have asked this question. I know if I submitted documentation with something similar in it, I'd have gotten it back with a sternly worded WTF on it.

All of this begs the requisition if yrn=YO and yfwd=yo then why use 2 different <expletive> instructions to say the same thing??

They're usually used between different kinds of sts... a yfwd between 2 knits and a yrn between 2 purls or from a knit to a purl. Which isn't here, they're all knit sts so someone doesn't know how to write a pattern.

Wait till you see 'k3, yfwd, yrn, p2'. That's just 1 yo and is between a knit a purl.

See, I never even thought about a double decrease and had to go find it. I just about gave up. I counted how many stitches each part of the instructions accounted for on the right needle. My mind works differently, obviously, and sometimes explanations go right over the top of my head. For me to explain things so someone else understands can be nigh impossible. It is so frustrating!

The major difference being that your way WORKS!

Honestly, I might have missed the double decrease too if I weren't currently working on a pattern that looks eerily similar to this one. But since that one is stored in fast-access RAM at present, that subset of instructions sorta jumped out at me.

With a little help, I think I've cracked it! Just managed to knit the row, having 3 knit stitches at the end as per the pattern and yet it still added up to 28!! Think I was yarning over incorrectly at the beginning of the first bit of the repeat

It seems that when I'm yarning fwd I'm increasing by 1, because if I knit (yarn is to back) bring the yarn to the front (yarn forward) then knit again it is having the same effect as yarning over, ie adding a stitch. When I do this now I am only left with 1 stitch to knit at the end of the row, instead of 3! Yet, when I count the stitches it adds up to 28.
Then on the next row when I yrn then purl to end that makes 29, which is correct.
The next row asks me to repeat the first row.Again I had 1 stitch to knit at the end, instead of 3, again giving 28.
The I must yrn and knit to end (29) and repeat theses 4 rows until it reaches a certain length.
The knitting is starting to take on the correct shape according to the picture, so maybe the pattern is wrong, not me?? Maybe it should read k1 instead of k3 at the end of the first row?

No the reason you only have 1 left at the end of the row instead of 3 is because you ate up the other 2 sts with what I put in bold above. You're knitting a stitch that isn't there when you do the YOs, so you have too many sts between them on the repeat twice. A yo is only wrapping the yarn around the needle and does not include a k1. So you wrap the yarn, k3, dec, k3, wrap the yarn k1 only, then repeat. Don't be knitting any stitches that aren't mentioned in the pattern - it says k3, not k1, k3.